Square Announces Cryptocurrency Alliance | PYMNTS.com

Square has announced the rollout of the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA), according to a web post.

It’s inviting others in the crypto community to join the alliance. Members must agree to not use their digital currency patents against another entity with the exclusion of “defensive reasons,” the post stated. Also, the group makes a “shared patent library” that creates a “collective shield of patents.” Square indicated the digital currency technology and its use remains in its early days.

According to the post, Square is “committed to making our foundational technology on cryptocurrency available for everyone to use.”

In other news, blockchain firm tZERO said that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has given the go ahead for tZERO Markets’ membership application, according to a Thursday (Sept. 10) announcement.

The green light lets tZERO provide retail brokerage offerings for digital assets to its customers and gives issuers “investment banking and placement agent services in connection with capital raising activities,” according to the announcement.

tZERO foresees that tZERO Markets will roll out its offerings in a “couple of months,” tZERO CEO Saum Noursalehi said in the announcement. Noursalehi noted that the news marks “an important milestone and further advances our vision of creating the most robust and innovative marketplace for private assets.”

And, Reinno rolled out a platform for tokenized commercial properties in the U.S., Cointelegraph reported.

As of the current time, prospective investors have to be accredited or qualified people that follow the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Those with an investment of at least $5,000 will be able to get into the commercial property market through the new infrastructure, according to the report. However, property investment tokens aren’t able to be traded on secondary markets for as long as a year following the end of the offering.

But the company has reportedly created a way for it to immediately give the go ahead to token-supported loans.

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The How We Shop Report, a PYMNTS collaboration with PayPal, aims to understand how consumers of all ages and incomes are shifting to shopping and paying online in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research builds on a series of studies conducted since March, surveying more than 16,000 consumers on how their shopping habits and payments preferences are changing as the crisis continues. This report focuses on our latest survey of 2,163 respondents and examines how their increased appetite for online commerce and digital touchless methods, such as QR codes, contactless cards and digital wallets, is poised to shape the post-pandemic economy.